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There really should be some sort of support group for those of us with an artistic bent — or who are artistically bent — whichever.

I’ve been a photographer off and on for over 45 years. I have photos I composed when I was a child. Even then I was capturing the unusual like a cat stuck up in a tree (which you can barely see since I didn’t have a zoom lens), or a cat sprawled out on a screen door trying to climb her way into the house, or a different view of the house, itself.

Throughout my childhood I wrote fiction, acted and sang on stage, drew things that I barely recognized when I was done with them, played recorder and clarinet, and made photos.

Then, during my 20s, I put that all behind me. I stopped creating and performing. I’m still not sure why and I’m especially baffled as to why it took over 20 years to again spark my interest in expressing my creativity. Digital photography caught my imagination, and I started playing around with cameras again, getting a feel for sharing what I saw whether from a journalistic point of view or something abstract or just plain goofy.

Now in my 50s, I’m still a shutter bug. I’ve also started creating jewelry, polymer clay figurines, and I’ve started to paint. The waterfall below, now on display in my office, is my first ever artistic, freehand painting. While I was guided through it by a friend who is a painter, when it comes down to it, it’s what I was able to pull out of my brain and put onto canvas.

I don’t know what possessed me to jump at the chance to learn painting. I have so much to learn about jewelry making, working with clay, photography, and everything else I do, but I dived in on this without a second thought. Then again, I don’t know why it took until I was nudging close to 55 to jump at the chance, either. I’ve got nothing particularly profound to say about that, really, but the next time someone asks me if I want to learn something new, I know that no matter how it turns out, I’ll share it with you. And I’d love to see what you create, too.